Timothy D. Finlay integrates the disciplines of form criticism and narrative criticism in an analysis of the birth report genre in the Hebrew Bible. He first establishes the standard structure as containing an introductory setting, a conception element, a birth element, a naming element, and an etiological element. He then analyzes how the genre of the surrounding material - genealogical list, annunciation type-scene, account of prophetic symbolic actions - modifies the standard form. Finally, he re-examines each individual narrative containing a birth report, paying particular attention to how the marked deviations from the standard pattern contribute to the specific narratological aims of the larger passage.